Rise of the Titans
by MiraAndLexi
Summary: Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons - SnK/AoT AU. Jack, Rapunzel, Merida, Hiccup, and other animated characters are living in a world of titans. PAIRINGS: Jackunzel, Mericcup, additional pairings.
1. Chapter 1: Invasion

Disclaimer: This is a Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons in an AU world that just so happens to be SNK (Attack on Titan's) universe. The story will take in similar places to SNK, but it's going in a different path and in different characters point of view. This fanfic is being worked on by two people (Mira and Lexi.) and was mostly inspired by mimera's RotBTD - SNK AU fanart on Tumblr!

Pairings: Jackunzel, Murricup, additional pairings.  
Rated: M  
TW: Blood, death, suicide.

**Chapter 1. Invasion**

Snowing. It's snowing again. Usually, snow is the most exciting thing about this place. The kids always get so excited; running around, making snow angels. It's almost as if they forget what's really out there. But lately, it just seems too quiet. People are getting sick. There's not enough medicine for everyone. Only the higher-class people get medicine right away, then the kids, then woman. Someone like me, my little sister, my friends, we'd never be able to get our hands on medicine on time. Because of that, I feel like I have to protect them; make sure they don't get sick. I'll steal medicine and get my arm cut off if it comes to that. As long as they're all safe.

Jack looked down at a frozen stream of water near his house. It was frozen enough just for him to see his own reflection. Brown hair, brown eyes, just an ordinary kid. Some light flakes of snow slid atop of the ice, resting in place whenever the wind would stop. Enough flakes stopped on Jack's reflection, almost making it look like he had white hair.

While being distracted by the snow, Jack's attention was now focused on rushed little footsteps he heard behind him. Hearing this, he turned his head to see a friend.

"Sophie? What are you doing-" Jack was cut off by the little girl.

Sophie stopped and placed her hands on her knees, taking a moment to catch her breath.

"Jack! It's your sister! She's...She needs your help!" Sophie panted, standing up straight again after speaking.

Jack got up with no hesitation, a worried look on his face. "What happened?!" But before he could get a reply, Sophie was already running back towards his house.

Jack quickly followed behind as he watched Sophie run inside the house, closing the door behind her. Few seconds past until Jack rushed into the house, leaving the door wide open and shouting, "Where's Emma?!"

As Jack was focusing his attention on the four silhouettes he saw standing in front of him, before he could shout again, he was interrupted with a loud "SURPRISE!" from the four other people in the room all at once.

"What..is this?" Jack questioned in slight shock.

Sohpie turned on the lights behind him, making everyone's faces clear.

Emma, Jack's dear little sister. She has brown hair and brown eyes just like him. Currently ten years old.

Sophie, Emma's best friend. They met a few years back. She has messy blonde hair and green eyes. Light freckles filled her face. Ten years old.

Edward Aster, a guardian who acts as an older brother to Sophie and her sister. He's the oldest out of all the kids. His skin is slightly tan, and his hair is black; it looks like a dark blue in some light. His hair is always messy. He never bothers to do anyhting with it since Sophie always loves playing with his hair. Seventeen years old.

and Rapunzel. She became good friends with Jack and his sister through Sophie and Emma's friendship. She has long golden blonde hair that ends somewhat past her waist, green eyes, and light freckles that tickle around her nose. Seventeen years old.

The four kids surrounded Jack. Emma was standing in front of him, holding out a cupcake.

"Happy Birthday, brother!" Emma said with a bright smile. "Punz and I made this for you! Well, she decorated it."

Jack stared at Emma for a bit, calming down now that he could see she was just fine, then reaching out to grab the cupcake.

"I completely forgot it was my Birthday. Uh, thanks..guys. I guess this means I'm fourteen now."

"Jack! Where are your shoes?! You really shouldn't go out in this weather without any shoes on, you know." Shouted Rapunzel from the kitchen.

"Okay, okay! I just forgot them, alright? No need to shout." Jack replied.

"Sorry, Punz.. It's my fault he's never wearing shoes-" Emma was interrupted.

"Emma, you don't need to bring that up."

"Yes I do, Jack! The only reason you're never wearing your shoes is because you gave them to me! Because..my shoes were getting too small for me and hurtin' my feet." Emma quickly added in.

"I get it.. I'm sorry for shouting. Hey, Emma, how about we make you a new pair of shoes tomorrow, or see if someone in town grew out of theirs?"

"Okay, that sounds fun!"

After a little more bickering, laughing, and conversating, a few hours passed. It was late, but everyone had yet to eat dinner.

"Well, while we're all here I might as well make dinner." said Rapunzel.

"Can I help?" Questioned Emma with a determained tone in her voice.

"Of course! What would I do without my special helper?"

After looking around the kitchen for a bit, Rapunzel noticed the lack of food.

"I guess I have to get a few things from mine and Sophie's place. I won't take long. Sophie, stay with Jack and Edward, okay?"

"You mean Bunny?" Questioned Sophie.

"Yeah, Bunny." Rapunzel giggled, then left the house to go get some things for dinner.

"Tch', why not give me a cool nickname? Like 'Lion' or 'Tiger', anything but Bunny. That's embarrassing." Edward remarked.

"Hehe, it's because you remind me of a bunny. We've been over this! Your name is Bunny and it's stayin' that way!"

"Okay, okay.."

While the kids and Edward were playing around and being loud, Jack looked out the window. A great view of the giant wall blocking them from anything and everything interesting. As the fog started covering up the window, Jack thought he noticed some kind of flash of light. Because of this, he got up and went outside.

"Where's he going?" Edward questioned to the girls.

"No one ever knows. He does this at least three times a week. We all need our space every once in a while, 'suppose." Emma replied.

Jack looked over at the wall where he saw the light, but there was nothing there.

"Typical. We're not even lucky enough to get a lightning storm here." Jack said to himself. "I guess I'll go back in. It's taking Rapunzel a long time to get whatever it is she needed. I don't know why warm bread wasn't enough to satisfy her. Maybe I should go see what's up?"

Jack then went back inside the house.

"Edward. Go check on Rapunzel. She's taking forever."

"Eh?! Why me?! It's your idea!"

"I'll stay here and watch the girls. Emma's my sister, after all. And this is my house. I don't see why I'd go."

"Tch', whatever. Fine, fine. I'll go get Rapunzel. I'll be back soon, she's probably just down the block anyway."

Edward then put on his jacket and boots and quickly went out the door waving to Sophie as he did, then went on his way to get Rapunzel.

"So.. uh. What were you three playing?" said Jack, trying to start conversation once he noticed the place seemed a lot more quiet than before.

"Heheh, we were just braiding Bunny's hair! I would ask if we could do the same with your hair but..it's a bit too short." Sophie replied mockingly.

"Well that's a shame." Said Jack, sarcastically. "Well..we can, uh, play in the snow?"

"Jack...We were in the snow all morning. I want to do something inside for the night. Besides, it's a lot colder than when the sun was out." Said Emma.

"Yeah, alright. Why don't you draw while we wait for the others to get back?"

"Okay! Punz showed me a lot of different ways to draw things. I'll make something for you, Jack. So no peaking!"

"I'll be at the table, then."

After about half an hour of doodling, Jack started to get a little worried.

"Hey, maybe we should-"

Emma interrupted. "Look! I'm all done. I don't think it's too bad. Not exactly as good as Punz can do, but I'm learning. Wanna see?"

"That's why I was waiting, isn't it-"

Jack was once again interrupted, but this time not by any person. He heard a lot of rubble crashing down from a short distance beside his house, followed with a slight shaking in the ground, and worst of all, screaming from the people in the walls.

"Jack! What's that noise? It scared us." Emma said, huddled up to Sophie.

Jack then thought back to when he saw the light by the wall, and remembered exactly why there's a wall there in the first place. To keep things out. Terrible, murderous things that the human eye should never have to see; Titans.

Jack quickly picked Emma up and had her rest on his shoulder, holding her close. Then grabbing Sophie's hand and quickly ran out of the house.

"I can't explain exactly what's going on, but we have to get out of here, now!"

-

Rapunzel was walking down the block, still a bit away from Jack's place.

"Jeez..I can't believe even /I/ didn't have everything I needed. I had to make a trip all the way into town just to get it all.. I hope they didn't give up on waiting and just ate warm bread without me." Rapunzel said to herself.

from behind, Rapunzel heard a woman scream, by the time she was going to turn around to see what was going on, the woman crashed into her, causing Rapunzel to drop all of her belongings.

"H-hey! Please watch-"

"Lady, get out of here! Now! Run!" Shouted the woman, running farther and farther away from Rapunzel.

"Why would I run away?..." Rapunzel questioned, then hearing a loud crash as she quickly turned around.

Frozen, scared, and shocked by what she saw. Slowly, she looked up at the beast in front of her. Terrified.

"A t-titan..."

She didn't know what to do. Fear was taking over her body. This was her first time ever seeing a titan in person. She only ever heard of them from people in the walls, most of which haven't even seen a titan themselves. Seeing one now, they're much more terrifying than her imagination ever pictured.

As the titan reached down to pick her up, she quickly snapped out of it and ran into an ally, still terrified.

"H-how did this happen!?" Rapunzel questioned to herself, still running away form the titan. "Where am I suppose to go?! What do I do!? I need to get to- S-Sophie and the others..Are they?... No! They're fine! But I won't be able to see them if I don't get away. Think, Rapunzel, think..."

While her mind was all over the place she looked around and hid behind a building, trying to stay out of the titans view.

Shaking and scared, she stood straight against the brick building. She could still hear the titan behind her, but didn't know what direction it was going. Panicking, she then noticed something from the side of her eye. By habit, she looked over in that direction.

"A...chameleon? What is it doing.. At a time like this? Why am I wondering about a chameleon?!" Rapunzle tried to slap herself a little so she could try and focus.

She couldn't help but keep looking at that chameleon. It looked like it was trying to get her attention. The curiosity just kept eating at her. That was always a bad trait of hers.

Feeling pressured, she finally gave up and ran over to the lizard. Thinking it would run away as she got closer to it, but rather it stayed there, as if it were waiting for her to reach it.

By the time she got to the chameleon she was frightened by a loud crash behind her. She didn't have to look; she already knew what it was. It was the house she was hiding behind. The tian just completely destroyed it with it's hands, like it knew she was there.

"I.. would have been crushed if I stayed there any longer. But..it didn't notice me run over here? Oh, wait, the chameleon-"

While Rapunzel was questioning everything around her, the lizard climbed up her leg and onto her shoulder. She would try to ask it what's going on, but being in such a situation, she rather decided to run and get away from that titan as soon as possible while she was still at an advantage.

-

"Sophie! Please, run just a little faster!" Jack shouted.

"But..Jack! What about Punz, and Bunny! What about them?!" questioned Sophie, worried.

"Don't worry! I'm sure they're fine! Edward probably found Rapunzel and got her out of this mess.. I'll get you to them, I promise! Just keep running!"

"R-right" Sophie tried as hard as she could to run like she never had before. This was no game of tag. There were no 'safe zones' in this. She knew that.

Running and running Jack never let go of the girls. Having to dodge every mineral flying at him, one finally managed to knock him down. It caused him to lose focus for a little bit as he passed out for a few minutes.

Slowly opening his eyes, Jack woke up.

"O-ow.." Jack tried to sit up but his whole body was sore and his vision a little blurry.

"Get up! Please, get up! We need to go! They're coming! Emma, get up!"

Jack quickly gained consciousness after he heard Sophie yell Emma's name. The two girls were a good 10 feet away from him. He looked at what was going on, and Emma seemed to have lost conciousness. Looking closer, he also noticed Sophie's leg was crushed by bricks.

"Emma! Please!" Sophie shouted, shaking Emma trying to wake her up.

The second Jack managed to get himself up a titan reached out and grabbed both of the girls, one in each hand.

"No! NO! LET THEM GO!" Jack lost it, running up to the titan.

All Jack could hear was the screeching and screaming from Sophie. Sophie tried to reach over to Emma, even though she just got farther and farther away as the titan started bringing Emma up to his mouth.

"EMMAAA!" Sophie screamed at the top of her lungs. Trying to punch the titan, she didn't notice the second titan behind it. This titan reached out and grabbed Sophie from the hand of the first titan.

"No! Let me go! I have to help Emma! Let me go!" Sophie screamed, struggled, tried to hit the titan as many times as she could; but nothing changed what was going to happen.

Before he could do a thing, he watched Sophie get eaten right in front of him. The only thing going on in his mind were the screams that came out of the tiny little girl, the little girl who was smiling hours before all of this.

The titan, that horrible beast was chowing down on one of his friends. Sophie's leg was hanging from its mouth, then falling down and hitting the ground hard a short distance infront of Jack.

Not being able to look away, Jack saw his little sister, Emma, be devoured by the first titan. He couldn't do a thing. He fell to his knees looking up at the titan. He was frozen; couldn't move. That was it. He had nothing else to live for. His only sister was gone in seconds. He wanted nothing else but to die. He wanted to take her place. It wasn't fair.

Jack sat there, giving up on everything. One of the titans reached down about to grab him. Before this could happen a Stationary Guard came spinning in on his 3D maneuver gear, slicing off the titans hand, then landing down next to Jack.

"Kid! What are you doing?! We have to get out of here!" The man started to shake Jack a bit, trying to get his attentiong. No good. Nothing was going to snap Jack out of shock. The man realized right away that this boy just saw something he'll never forget. But he wasn't going to leave him behind.

"You can hate for this later, but you're coming with me! We're getting out of here!" The man said. He grabbed Jack and threw him over his shoulder and getting out of there as quick as he could.

"By the way, the name's Kristoff."

-

In another location of town Rapunzel was sitting on the ground hiding her face in her knees as her new chameleon friend was still beside her.

There was crushed buildings all around her. Cold red bodies were scattered on the ground. She refused to look up at the mess that was in front of her. She didn't want to remember what was happening.

Her body was shaking from fear, no matter what she did, it wouldn't stop. She heard Footsteps heading towards her but still refused to lift her head. A part of her thought she was just imagining the whole thing and didn't want to get her hopes up.

"Rapunzel? Hey, Rapunzel, is that you?"

The voice was familiar and without hesitation she looked up at the boy. It was Edward.

"E-Edward.. These people..." Rapunzel said shakingly.

"I know.. There's nothing we can do about it now.. Don't look at them, okay? Come on, I'm going to take you to the safety boats."

"No! I have to get to Jack's..I have to get Sophie. She's probably so scared.. I've been trying to find his place for so long but everything is rubble.. It's like a completely different town. I don't know where I am anymore. I don't remember who use to live in these..houses.."

"We can't go back there, I already checked. There were no signs of them anywhere at his place..or what's left of it. We have to head to the safety boats while we still can. I bet they're already there." Edward tried to calm Rapunzel down, but his own words only made himself worry even more.

"But..."

"Rapunzel. I've been running around the area trying to find as many people as I could so I can take them to the boats. They're waiting for me right over there." Edward turned to his left and pointed to the distance, revealing a group of civilians waiting for him.

"O..okay... Sophie and the others are probably waiting for us there..I'm sure of it.." Maybe it was the fact that she finally saw more living people rather than all the dead bodies she's seen for the past hours, but she finally got up and decided to follow Edward and the group to the boats.

"Yeah.. I'm sure there all waiting for us.." Edward mumbled this to himself wanting more than anything for Rapunzel's words to be true.

-

About an hour later Edward and the rest of the group made it to the safety ships. They lost a few people alone the way due to titans and the others being too sick to continue walking.

Everyone went on to look for their families or try to get on the boats while Rapunzel stayed next to Edward. They both searched around the crowd or terrified people trying to find their friends.

"I don't see them.." Rapunzel said with a wobbly voice.

"Keep looking. I'm sure it will take a while to find them with all these people around." Edward replied in a strong brittle voice. He's trying to stay strong and confident so he won't worry Rapunzel more than she already is.

After nearly half an hour of looking through all the people, Edward spots Kristoff in the mess.

"Hey, Kristoff!" Edward shouted for his attention.

Kristoff noticed and walked over to Edward right away.

"Hey, glad to see you're doing fine, Ed'."

"Yeah. Anyway. Have you seen a boy and two little girls? He's fourteen, has brown hair, brown eyes. Very stubborn. One of the girls is his little sister and the other is blonde with green eyes."

"Well, I haven't seen any little girls like that, but I managed to save this little brat earlier further in town near the walls toward the East." Kristoff replied, pointing over at Jack who was sitting down staring at the ground.

"Jack!" Rapunzel shouted and quickly ran up to Jack the second she saw him. "Jack! You're okay.. I'm so happy.." Rapunzel wanted to ask so badly why Sophie and Emma weren't with him. But she was scared, as if she already knew the answer. She couldn't manage to let the words escape her lips.

"Rapunzel.." Jack continued to look down. His voice was cold and eyes were dull of any light or hope. "I'm so sorry..."

Rapunzel's eyes widend. Jack didn't have to finish his sentance, she already knew what was going to come next.

Rapunzel fell to her knees and started crying uncontrollably. Jack didn't know what to do to comfort her. He just sat there looking at the ground, listening to Rapunzel's cry of pain. He couldn't help but blame himself for everything that was happening.

"It's my fault.. I couldn't help them in time.. I saw it all happen and I couldn't do a thing.. I'm so sorry, Punzie..."

Rapunzel looked up at Jack, still crying. She shook her head and quickly wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"You can't..blame yourself..." Rapunzel said with pauses in her words. She couldn't let him take a blame like this; it would eat at him for the rest of his life. She couldn't handle this situation, but she knew she would need Jack by her side. If he keeps putting the blame on himself, he won't be around to help her hold on anymore.

From the distance Edward heard the whole thing. He walked up to Jack slowly with his head down.

"So..you're saying Sophie?.." Edward said in a rough tone.

He stood next to the two kids. None of them could say another word. Rapunzel was crying and Jack was speechless. Kristoff understood the whole situation and decided to stay out of it.

After a while of mourning, Kristoff finally stepped in and tried to catch their attention.

"Guys. The boats are almost full. I can get you on, but you have to go on right now."

"Yeah, I'll get them on. Go help the other civilians." Edward replied, not even looking at Kristoff.

"Alright'. Good luck, Ed'." Kristoff left shortly after.

Edward got Rapunzel and Jack on the boats safely. No one wanted to say anything. He knew it was going to be an uncomfortable time, but that didn't matter to him.

There was a lot of noise and yelling from civilians outside the boats. Edward decided to go and check what was going on.

"If you're sick, you're not allowed on the boats! That's our orders!" Shouted a guard.

"That's bullshit! Let us on! We suffered enough! Get us out of this damn place!" an older woman replied.

The woman tried to push the guard out of the way so she can get on the boat, but he grabbed her and threw her at the ground.

"Listen because I'm not saying this again! Anyone who is sick is not allowed on! We can't bring you into the other wall, it's too risky and we'll be at a loss of medicine! Anyone who is sick is staying behind!" The guard said with a rude look at all the sick civilians, as if they were the monsters.

The woman was furious so she got up and coughed in the guards face followed by a lot of words that don't need to be repeated.

Edward was sickened just by looking at all of this and decided he wanted nothing to do with it. He couldn't risk anything and needed to stay with Jack and Rapunzel. Before he went to go back the them, a woman stopped him.

"Excuse me..Sir?" Said a woman with a very croaky voice followed by a few caughs.

"Listen.. I want to help, but I can't do anything-" Edward was interupted by the woman.

"Not me... I'll stay behind. I don't have much time, anyway.. But..my boy..." The lady looked down to reveal a little brown haired kid beside her leg. "Please..He only has a small cold.. He will only need very little medicine. Please just...please sneak him on the boat with you.. I'm begging. It's all I want..."

Edward looked down at the boy. He couldn't look away. The kids big green eyes and crazy freckles could only remind him of one person; Sophie. No matter how strongly he didn't want to break any rules, he just couldn't leave this boy behind. After long hesitation, he finally agreed to take the boy onto the boat.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! You're a very kind man..I'll never forget you even when I'm gone." The woman said joyfully.

After a painful goodbye, Edward finally got the boy onto the boat and brough him over to Rapunzel and Jack.

"Hey, I know this is sudden but we're going to have a new member of the group for a while.. He has a cold, but don't let anyone know about it. He can hide it easily. I have some medicine in my jacket and I'll give it to him when there's less people around. Just try to welcome him a little. We've all been through a lot."

Jack and Rapunzel looked over at the boy. Rapunzel had nothing to say but she wasn't indifferent about the situation, she just wanted to stay quiet for the time being. Jack stared for a bit then decided to question the boy.

"So..who are you?"

The brown haired boy didn't say anything which just tested Jack's patience. Jack had enough of the silence and looked away, resting his elbow on the frame of the boat and his head in his hand.

After a good moment of silence, the boy finally decided to say something.

"My name.. Is Hiccup."

~~~~  
Ch. 1 END.  
Characters used in this chapter are listed below.  
Jack Frost, Emma/Jack's sister, Sophie, Edward Aster/"Bunny"/Bunnymund - Rise of the Guardians.  
Rapunzel, Pascal - Tangled.  
Kristoff - Frozen.  
Hiccup - How to Train your Dragon.

We hope you "enjoyed" chapter 1! Depending on the reviews, we'll get chapter 2 up as soon as possible. Chapter 1 was written by Mira and looked over by Lexi.


	2. Chapter 2: The Fourth Memeber

**Chapter II: The Fourth Member**

Five years and nearly three months have passed since the Titan invasion that took the lives of many, including Jack and Rapunzel's little sisters. Jack and his friends wanted to protect the people inside the walls. Him, Hiccup, Rapunzel.. Even Edward joined them. His reasons were unknown at the most, but he was right into it. They could all agree on one thing, though; none of them wanted to see another broken family.

Jack, now being eighteen and Rapunzel whose Birthday is soon coming up, became very close to Hiccup, the brown-haired boy they met five years ago. Edward, though, has had a harder time opening up to him, but cares for him nonetheless.

The three young adults all decided on joining the Training Corps together. Rapunzel and Jack agreed on sticking together from now on after the incident that took place five years ago. At first, Hiccup wanted nothing to do with fighting and thought his impressive crafting abilities would be more suited for making equipment for all the Military fighters, but Jack, ever so forcefully, persuade Hiccup into joining with them. They all have trained equally hard over the past few years to make it into the top 10 rank together. After a lot of hard work, they're finally nearly there.

Edward is now part of the Military Corps. Kristoff put in a good word about how well Edward managed to gather many civilians and bring them to safety. After a few years of tough training in the Training Corps, he finally made it to the place he is in today so he can continue to keep as many civilians safe as possible. He now likes to go by the nickname "Bunny", not telling anyone the reason other than "I feel it suits me better".

-

It was another day in the Training Corps where everyone was out and about to start training. They all lined up in an orderly fashion standing still in salute as the Instructor walked by examining them. Jack, Rapunzel, and Hiccup were in the clear as the Instructor walked by them. A few rows down from Jack, there was a younger boy with bright red curly hair. He was fidgeting around as if he were hiding something in his pockets. Bluntly enough, he was, and there was evidence all over his face, enough to prove any man guilty. Jack could tell the kid was hiding food just by looking at him.

As the Instructor made his way to the redheaded boy, he stood in front of him with a dark glare. The boy was in saluting position, staring past the Instructor. "Sir?" he questioned as the Instructor continued to stand there.

"What are you hiding?" blatantly asked the Instructor.

The boy quickly replied, unaware of the crumbs all over his face. "Nothin', Sir."

The Instructor grew impatient and grabbed the kid by the collar of his shirt. "Then what's this all over your face?!" He shouted, holding the kid a few inches from the ground.

The kids face grew a shade of red as he looked to the side a bit. He decided to lick around his lips, taking in the rest of the crumbs. "Ah, I'm a messy eater. Guess I didn't notice!"

"You're trying to tell me you have crumbs all over your face from the last time you ate?" The Instructor tightened his grip on the cloth of his collar. "The last time your group had a meal was last night, don't try to lie to me!".

The kids face grew a little sweaty as he tried to pull off a smile to get away with everything. The Instructor, angered and annoyed, threw the kid to ground causing him to land roughly on his back. Jack barely noticed from his peripheral vision a girl with bright curly red hair look down and shake her head in disbelief.

The Instructor reached into the kids pockets and pulled out pieces of crumbled bread, then forming his hand into a fist as crumbs from the bread fell to the ground, onto the boys clothes. "So what is this?!"

"Ye' don't understand! I was starvin'! I didn't get any food last night, richt?! Naebody would gie me any food 'cause they thought I already went up fer' some, but that was me' brother! We're tri-..twins, yer' see! They gave me' brother food but not me, 'cause they thought they already fed me. I had no choice. I was starvin'!" Shouted the boy for the whole group the hear.

"I don't want to hear it!" the Instructor yelled. Their bickering continued for a while after until the instructor finally decided on a punishment for the kid. "After todays training, you're going to run laps until you collapse. And durin' all this, you get to keep running as you watch everyone else eat dinner."

"Harsh." Rapunzel whispered enough for only Jack and Hiccup to hear. Jack nudged her a little as a warning for her to be quiet. He wouldn't want her to get in trouble, too, especially not while the Instructor was all fired up like this.

"He's scarier than the Titans." Hiccup remarked quietly to the two. Jack, annoyed, glared at Hiccup to shut up. Slightly intimidated, Hiccup shut his mouth and continued waiting for orders from the Instructor.

Finally, after all the arguing that felt like forever to Jack, they were allowed to begin the days training.

Their training was pretty simple to understand; They were to fight against another member of the trainee squads and not hold anything back. Of course, they were requested to go against someone they did not know well.

It took no time for people to decide on a partner. Rapunzel and Hiccup were out of sight for Jack, so he was only focused on who he was going against. This course of training would last for a couple of hours, enough time for people to switch partners every now and then.

Jack groaned when his stomach was punched at whilst attempting to dodge. Tired and sore, he got a grip of his balance and got back up to continue fighting. Without a seconds hesitation he ducked before almost getting socked in the face. He grabbed hold of the opponents arm while he had the leading chance and took the male opponent down. Jack, getting cocky over his small victory, let out a chuckle under his breath.

"Yeah, yeah, you got me. But if you think you're so good, go give that girl over there a try." the opponent pointed over to a girl with messy, curly red hair who seemed to be on her own avoiding the fights. Jack, puzzled, decided to approach her.

"What'cha want?" The female remarked with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice as Jack approached her.

"You should give Jack here a try! I'm sure he won't bore ya'." Jack's opponent shouted from behind.

"Couldn't ye' get better competition, Tuffnut?" She questioned. Tuffnut grumbled under his breath, mimicking the girls words.

"Hey! I'm right here, you know. I get this feeling you think little of me." Jack spoke, "I don't like that. Why don't you try to fight against me before judging." he urged.

She looked at him with a determined glance. "Al'ight', just don't bore me."

The two got ready to fight. Tuffnut decided to back up into the distance, knowing this probably won't end well for anyone who decided to get in their way during the fight. Once they knew they were both ready, they dashed out at each other. Jack lunged at her but she swiftly kicked his leg out from beneath him in one go. "Before we really get into this, ye' gotta' take this wooden sword from Jack. We don' need that here." she remarked. Tuffnut groaned but came to take Jack's weapon. Jack didn't mind, he was interested in seeing where this could go with no weapons. Finally, they got ready for their real fight.

While attacking each other, Jack tried to land a punch to her face, but she girl ducked easily as if she knew he was going to do that, then grabbing onto his arm to flip him over and use herself to push him to the ground. Jack smashed into the ground face first. She was now sitting on his back, keeping him from getting up. She roughly twisted his arm from behind him; keeping him from being able to get up. Her hair falling in her face lightly covering one of her eyes as she smiled at her obvious victory. "I even had me' hair in me' way, but I still beat ya'."

Jack had an angered expression on his face, but didn't want the girl to know he took her words and victory to heart. "Yeah, well, the sun was in my eye." he mumbled.

The girl got up and walked in front of Jack. Before Jack could continue talking, she held her hand out. "Merida." introducing herself.

Jack got comfortable and pulled himself up onto his knee, reaching out for the girl's hand as she helped him up the rest of the way. "Jack." he did the same.

Jack could hear footsteps running up to him from behind. "Are you okay, Jack?" Rapunzel said with a snickering voice, she couldn't help but laugh a little. "I saw you were going to fight against her and wanted to watch, but by the time I could get over here she already had you beat."

"Yeah, yeah. I was just tired from all my other fights." Jack grumbled, lying to his friend. His body could still go for some more fighting.

"He told me the sun was in his eye a second ago." Merida snickered then looked over at the girl with long golden blonde hair.

Rapunzel walked past Jack and went right to Merida to greet herself. "My name's Rapunzel. I've heard about your skills. I'm actually impressed you could even take Jack down, but I'm not too surprised." Rapunzel let out a nice giggle.

"Ra..punzel? That's way too long fer' me. How 'bout I call you..Punzie?" Merida suggested.

Rapunzel smiled and nodded her head. "Sure." she looked over to Jack. "It's interesting, actually. Jack is the only one who ever called me by Punzie every now and then, but he never says it enough. I'd be glad if you called me that."

"Great! The name's Merida, by the way." Merida introduced herself to Rapunzel and shook her hand.

Hiccup came running over to the group. "Hey! Are you all deaf? Group training is over, we can all head back now."

Rapunzel smiled at Merida once more. "I'm glad we could talk a little. Hey, why don't you eat with us later? We'd be glad to have you there with us."

Merida nodded. "I'd like that. I'll meet you all there."

Rapunzel nodded then turned to Jack and Hiccup. "Let's go." She then ran off ahead of the two. "Hey, wait up!" Jack quickly followed behind her, but Hiccup stayed behind for a bit.

"Sorry if they caused you any trouble, Jack most of all. I'm Hiccup, since I hear you're going to be eating with us I might as well introduce myself."

Merida shook her head. "I probably caused thee trouble if anythin'. I'm Merida. Good to meet ya'."

Hiccup smiled. "Well, I guess we should head back. I'll show you where we all sit."

After a long day of training, all the trainees went back to go eat; all but the little redheaded boy named Hamish.

Night fell and everyone gathered into the dining hall to eat. Hiccup came in with Merida and they both joined Jack and Rapunzel at the usual table. In the beginning Merida felt a little out-of-place so she stayed quiet as she listened to the three go on about their day.

"You know, it would probably be easier to fight and get around if you cut your hair a little, Rapunzel." Jack remarked. "Besides, I think short hair would look kinda good on you, or something." Jack looked down at his food and took a bite before Rapunzel could say anything, hoping he didn't upset her.

Rapunzel took in the thought and started sliding her fingers in a small patch of hair that fell out of the braid which held the rest of her hair back during training.

In the distance there was a loud crash of glass, followed by a shout from a trainee "Yo, Flynn, what's your problem?" The male named Flynn quickly began cleaning up his mess, and his friends decided to help him out.

"Ah, hey, Punzie. If ya' want, do ya' think I could cut yer hair for ya'?" Merida asked, out of the blue. Rapunzel's answer was a small nod followed by her famous smile everyone saw her with. In excitement, Merida couldn't help but shout "Yeah!" then quickly after covered her mouth with her hands and let out a little chuckle between her fingers. The other three at the table decided to join in as they all laughed together, having a good time. The rest of dinner was very similar to this moment and they all bonded rather quickly.

Dinner for all the trainees finally ended and they all went back to their assigned rooms. Merida on the other hand decided to sneak into the kitchen once the dining room was empty and Rapunzel kept watch. While in the kitchen, Merida grabbed a sharp knife that could be used to cut hair and then quickly met up with Rapunzel.

"This should work just fine." Merida let Rapunzel get a glimpse of the knife then wrapped it in a piece of cloth and hid it under her shirt. "Let's go back to my room and we can cut yer hair."

"First we need to go back to my room. I need to get something." Rapunzel replied. Merida didn't want to make Rapunzel feel questioned so she just agreed and they went over to Rapunzel's room.

"Jack, Hiccup, and the others seem to be getting ready to sleep, so I'll just quickly go in there. I'll be right out." said Rapunzel before she went in the room to then come out not even a minute after. Her and Merida finally went over to Merida's room quietly.

"Some of the boys seem to be sleepin' already, but don't worry about bein' quiet. They can sleep through anything." said Merida while she turned a light on beside her bed. "By the way..er, I don't mean to dig into yer business or anything, but, what did you need to get from your room so bad?"

"Oh, well.." Rapunzel hesitated, but then pulled her sleeve up a little and a small green chameleon peeked out. "Uh, I found him before we came here five years ago, we got a little attached.. I don't feel comfortable leaving him in the room with some of the people in there. I named him Pascal. You see, he saved my life when-"

Merida cut Rapunzel off since she knew it's not easy for anyone to talk about what happened five years ago. "I get it. So he's kinda like a pet yer somethin', that's cool." she smiled.

Rapunzel understood and smiled back. Finally, she sat in front of Merida on the bed and rest her hands in her lap. "Have you ever done this before?" she questioned, a little uneasy about getting her hair cut.

"Can't say I have, to be honest. But it can't be all that difficult, right?" Merida reached under her shirt and pulled out the knife, unwrapping it from the cloth.

"I'm putting my trust in you. Just..not /too/ short, okay? Maybe something Jack would like." Rapunzel mumbled.

"Yer not just doing this for him, are you?" Merida scolded.

"No, not at all. Honestly, I've wanted to get it cut. It always manages to get in my way during training, and it's hard to take care of. I can't imagine failing on a mission or even dying because of something like my hair getting in the way. I've just been hesitant. I've never really done anything with my hair before." Rapunzel replied in a strong tone.

"Well, don't worry too much about it. If ya' really don't like it, ye' can always grow it back." Merida grabbed some of Rapunzel's hair and took out her comb to brush it before figuring out where to cut.

"You're right." Rapunzel took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm ready. Just cut it."

Merida held up the knife and began cutting off some of Rapunzel's long hair. Long pieces of golden blonde hair slowly fell to the ground. After nearly half an hour, Merida was finally finished and ready to show Rapunzel her new hair.

"Well, wat'cha think?" Merida asked, holding up a small glass mirror in front of Rapunzel.

Rapunzel looked at her new hair, shocked, she didn't say anything for a moment. Her hair was now to her shoulders, but fell a little longer in the front. It framed well along her face. She scuffed her fingers through her hair gently, feeling how much lighter and how easy it was to glide her fingers through. After getting a good look and feel of her new hair, she finally decided how she felt about it. "I love it! Thank you, Merida. It's just what I expected."

"Ya' sure? It's a bit longer in the front, maybe I should trim it a bit more there."

Rapunzel shook her head "No, it's perfect. I love it just like this." Rapunzel looked at it in the mirror a little longer before giving it back to Merida. "How about you, Pascal, what do you think?"

Pascal looked up at Rapunzel and nodded his head, his whole body following along with him, followed by a little squeak coming from his mouth.

"I'm glad you like it, too. I can't wait for the others to see." Rapunzel stood up. "Thank you again, Merida. Let's talk again tomorrow. Pascal and I should head back now before someone notices I've been gone."

Merida smiled. "Lookin' forward to it. See ya' then."

Rapunzel quickly but quietly ran out of the room, right as she was about to run out the door she gently bumped into another trainee. "Ah, sorry! Please don't tell anyone I was here!" then continued to run back to her room after that. The trainee she bumped into stiffly walking into the room looking as if he just lost at a game against some friends.

"Flynn? What's got ye' so down?" Merida questioned as the male walked over to his bed and laid down, staring up at nothing.

"Don't even speak." Flynn replied then turned over to his side, sliding his legs up to his chest before hugging them.

"Freak." Merida mumbled then cleaned up the mess that was left behind and finally laid down to get a nice rest. Tomorrow should be a fun day, after all. It's the day the top 10 ranked trainees get to move on to their new roles in the military. And it's also Rapunzel's Birthday.

-

Chapter 2. END.  
Chapter written by Mira, reviewed by Lexi.  
New characters introduced in this chapter originally from:  
Merida- Brave, Hamish- Brave, Tuffnut- How to Train Your Dragon, Flynn- Tangled.


	3. Chapter 3: Rapunzel's Birthday Part 1

**Chapter II: Rapunzel's Birthday part 1**

"Hey, Punzie, get up." Jack demanded. "Today is the day we find out about the top 10, we have to get there first." Jack had a firm grip on Rapunzel's bed covers, which she was wrapped in trying to sleep a little longer. Jack tried tugging at the covers to pull them off but Rapunzel had a tight grip of them over her head.

"Jack, even if we're the first people there, doesn't mean we get the news before anyone else. Besides, we still have a good twenty minutes before we need to get up." Rapunzel groaned.

"You know Jack; he's always eager to get out of this place." Hiccup teased.

"Well, aren't you guys? This room is too crowded. We'll have better rooms and more space at the new place. And they won't treat us like kids." Jack bickered.

Hiccup just shrugged at Jack in fear of saying anything misleading while Jack appeared to be worked up. Rapunzel let out a quiet sigh and finally uncovered herself as she sat up.

"Well, does it look bad?" Rapunzel questioned about her shorter hair.

Hiccup raised his eyebrows a bit while hesitating to speak due to being in shock. He only ever saw Rapunzel with long hair, and this was definitely a change. Jack, however, just stared at her hair, which caused Rapunzel to worry for a second.

"It suits you well, 'Punzel." Hiccup replied after a moment. "That should definitely help out with fighting and getting around."

"Thank you, Hiccup. It's certainly lighter." said Rapunzel while stroking her fingers through her hair. She looked over to Jack and asked for his opinion once more. "Well? If you think it looks bad, don't worry about hurting my feelings or anything."

"I was right. Short hair looks well on you." Jack replied.

Rapunzel smiled at his response, and replied with a small nod.

"Get your Jacket on, Punzie. It's time to head out for real this time." said Jack in a softer tone this time.

Rapunzel got up and quickly got dressed in her Training uniform then met back up with Jack and Hiccup right after.

"Hopefully this will be our year. You guys remember where we agreed to go when we all got past the top 10, right?" Jack questioned to the two.

"Yeah.." Hiccup replied, a little uncertain about everything.

"Survey Corps." said Rapunzel in a surprisingly strong tone.

"And Merida now, too." Hiccup added. "I have no doubt in my mind that she made it to the top 10. She's extremely skilled."

"She's a great addition, but we can't force her to join Survey Corps. We never know if she wants to join Military Police or Stationary Guard. We won't force anything on her, let's just hope she joins us. Or, I guess, let's hope she doesn't, since it's so life threatening and all." Jack replied.

The two nodded in response to Jack. They all started to head to the door, about to leave their room for what will hopefully be the last time. As Hiccup and Jack reached the door, Rapunzel stopped and looked down a little.

"Hey, did you guys forget something? Today's my Birthda-" Rapunzel stopped talking when she realized Jack and Hiccup were already out the door. She smiled a little then let out a soft sigh followed by mumbling to herself. "Right. Today is the big day. The day we join the Survey Corps."

Rapunzel quickly snapped out of it and caught up with the other two. The three were now heading out to the training fields together to hear about who will be continuing up in ranks.

-

Everyone gathered in the training fields where Jack, Hiccup, and Rapunzel joined up with Merida. Before they could even start-up a conversation the Instructor walked to the front of the field alongside the Commander. All the Trainees got in line and stood still facing the higher ranked men.

"As you all know, today is the day the top ten students will be advancing to different ranks in the military. They get to choose from three different ranks. You should all know which these ranks are and what you do within them, but I will go over them again to the top ten students. So, with that, I'm about to name off the advancing students. If your name is called, move to the front of the line. If your name was not called after I list everyone off, then get back into the training fields. Now, the top ten students are," The Commander shouted loud enough for all the Trainees to hear clearly. "Ten, Hamish. Nine, Astrid. Eight, Tuffnut. Seven, Mavis. Six, Anna. Five, Toothiana. Four, Hiccup. Rank three, Flynn. Rank two, Rapunzel. And Rank one, Jack. May all ten of you come up front to me. Everyone else, go back to training with the Instructor."

Merida was shocked by not hearing her name in the calling. It made her furious, but not wanting to go against instructions, she went back to training, kicking at the ground with every step.

Hiccup and Rapunzel could easily see the distraught in Merida's actions. They were upset, too. They were so confident in Merida's skills, something seemed completely off about this whole situation.

"Guys, come on." Jack motioned the two to follow him to the Commander.

Rapunzel followed behind slowly, while Hiccup took one last look at the upset redhead walking in the opposite direction. "This isn't right." He mumbled to himself, then finally catching up to Rapunzel and the others.

"Like I said, I'm going to go over the three ranks once more. You may only join one. Choose wisely and do not disappoint anyone in your new position. First option, Stationary Guard. In this, you will be patrolling and maintaining the walls, keeping eyes on all the titans outside of it and making sure they do not get in. You will be in the first line of defence against titans if they manage to get through the wall, like the incident that happened five years ago, which I'm sure most of you remember very clearly.

Your second option is Military Police. In this, you are ordered to serve as personal guards for civilians inside the wall. This job is extremely important. And don't get your hopes up. Just because you have a smaller chance of coming face-to-face with a titan, does not mean you will survive until old age.

And last, Survey Corps. Here, you will explore the outsides of the wall. You will be joined with other Survey Corps members to gather wood, food, and reasearch anything that could be an advantage to us against titans. This is the most risky rank of the three, of course, since you will be in the open where a titan can come out at any minute. Do one choose this rank if you will only disappoint me, your teammates, and all the civilians inside the wall.

With that information, I'll give you all a few hours to yourselves to think everything over. I'll be back on the field to hear your answers at noon." The Commander finished speaking. Shortly after all ten students went off to go think over what rank they were going to choose.

Once all the students were clear of sight, including Jack and Rapunzel, Hiccup decided to try talking to the Commander.

"Sir, I think you made a huge mistake. You see-" Hiccup was interrupted.

"What is this about? You should be gone by now." said the Commander in a gruff tone.

"Well.. It's about the top ten students. There's this girl- well, I mean.. Listen, I just really think she should be one of the top the members. Her skills are like no others, and she would be really useful to everyone. Her name is Merida." Hiccup replied in a confident tone.

"I know which one you're talking about. The redhead. I can see where you're coming from; she is a very skilled student. But she strongly lacks in using swords, and is slow on her Manuever Gear. She would be devoured by a titan in a second. Maybe next year." The Commander started to walk away.

"But, sir-"

"That's all we need to talk about. Meet back here at noon."

Hiccup sighed and started walking the other way. He knew nothing he said would get through to the Commander.

Merida was walking toward the Training field where most of the students were busy training. Everything in her was trying to keep herself from just walking out and giving up. Like many others, Merida has worked hard to get in the top ten, and was sure she would make it this year. On top of that, she was upset that she would have to be apart from her new friends, and one of her own brothers.

Merida decided to walk over to the supply shed which held most of the weapons for training. She looked around and from her peripheral vision she just barely saw something that caught her eye. She walked over to pick it up.

"A Bow and a few arrows? Maybe I can take my anger out on this." Merida whispered to herself.

With her new bow and arrows she walked out of the shed and found a training dummy that no one else was practicing on. Merida stared at the dummy for a bit then took out one of the arrows to carve a target on the wood of the dummy. After, she stepped back a few feet, positioned the bow and aimed her first arrow right at her newly carved target then let go of the arrow. Her first hit got right in the middle. She didn't think much of this since she was just blowing off steam and wasn't very far from the target to begin with. Merida walked back and grabbed the arrow she just used. Deciding she wanted to test herself a little more, she took on a much farther distance from the target.

Hiccup was walking around the training field trying to find his friends when he just so happened to see Merida shooting arrows. Without realizing it, he was watching her for a few minutes. For some reason, he was really fascinated in her skills in archery.

"This is what I mean. This is the kind of person who should be in the top ten." Hiccup said to himself.

"You're right." replied a voice.

Startled, Hiccup looked to his side and saw the Training Instructor.

"Sir." Hiccup shouted and straightened his posture.

"You're not my student anymore. Don't bother with the fancy remarks." said the Instructor. "I see you're disappointed in the results for the top then."

"It's not that. I think the students who made it really did deserve it. But I think Merida deserved it more than most. She works really hard. And look, she has skills in more than just one weapon. How could the Commander look past that?"

"I agree. She does deserve to be in the top ten. But the Commander has his reason, very understandable reasons at that. Maybe if a bow and a few arrows could kill a titan she could have ranked up with you all."

Hiccup pondered for a bit when and idea suddenly hit him. "You're right, maybe a bow and arrow can't kill a titan, but it can slow them down!" Hiccup quickly ran off in a different direction, leaving the Instructor puzzled.

-

"Where did Hiccup go?" questioned Jack.

"I'm not sure," Rapunzel replied. "but I saw him talking to the Commander a few hours ago.."

"Well, whatever he's doing, he better hurry. It's almost noon."

"You're really taking this day seriously, Jack. Maybe you should stop and think about a few things. Like what else is happening today, or something, you know." Rapunzel attempted to hint about her Birthday.

"Well, we've worked so hard. I'm not just going to treat this day like a joke."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry."

After Rapunzel spoke, Pascal peeked his head out of her jacket pocket.

"You're going to bring the lizard?" Jack questioned.

"His name is Pascal and he's a chameleon. And of course. He's as big a part of this group as you and me."

"I guess I won't complain. He hasn't done anything wrong yet."

Jack and Rapunzel looked at the time and noticed it was nearly noon. They decided to stop waiting for Hiccup and began heading over to the area where the top ten were to meet up with the Commander.

"I'm sure Hiccup's already there." said Rapunzel.

"Let's hope so." Jack replied.

-

A few minutes later nine students lined up in front of the Commander. As expected, Hiccup was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm only counting nine bodies. Where is the tenth student?" the Commander shouted.

All the students looked around in worry, not sure whether it would be better to answer or just stay quiet. Before Jack was about to say something, Hiccup comes running in carrying 3D Maneuver Gear.

"Sorry, sorry, I know I'm late - but I have something I want to show you." said Hiccup while running up to the Commander and passing the students.

The Commander looked at him with an unforgiving expression. "You come here late and expect to show me 3D Maneuver Gear? Get in line now and I'll save your punishment!" he shouted toward Hiccup.

"I'm sorry, Sir, really. But this is important. It's about Merida."

"We've been over this. It's too risky to have her advance this year. Now drop the gear and get in line, we're done wih this discussion."

"It's too risky NOT to have her advance, Sir." Hiccup paused for a moment to take a second to realize how much trouble he was getting himself into. It didn't take him long to realize he didn't care at this point; he already started his argument and there was no reason to stop now. "Merida is a very skilled student. And I think you would be wrong to leave her out of the top ten."

While Hiccup was talking, Merida overheard her name and decided to spy in on what was going on. "What's he doin'?" she questioned to herself.

"I understand she /may/ be a little slow on her 3D Maneuver Gear and that can be really risky when face-to-face with a Titan." Hiccup continued.

"Is he tryin' ta make sure I /never/ get in the top ten?" questioned Merida.

"But look at this." Hiccup put the 3D Maneuver Gear on himself. "I modified it. See, there's still holders here for swords, but I added this," Hiccup pointed around at the 3DMG "with this, you can easily equip a bow for quick grab and place. And then right here is where it can hold a bunch of arrows. Up to 30. I can fix it to hold more if I need to-" Hiccup was then interrupted.

"What are you going on about? Why would maneuver Gear need bow and arrow holders? You're testing my patience." said the Commander.

"Not any maneuver gear; Merida's maneuver gear. You see, she may be slow, and arrows may not be enough to kill a titan, but if she used these, she could slow the titan down. Say, by shooting it in the eyes to blind it, which would give her a huge advantage to sneak to the neck of the titan and cut a nape in it with her swords. She can even use the arrows to help out teammates that are too far to reach on time. It sounds difficult, but I know Merida could do something like that." Hiccup explained.

"Kid, you're wasting your time. Now get in line and-"

"No! I've seen what she can do. You need her in this group, Sir. With this maneuver gear she's as good as any of us." Hiccup's voice grew louder. "You have no reason to keep her out of the top ten anymore!" Hiccup wasn't sure what it was, but he refused to lose this argument. He wasn't sure what would come of him or if he would still be able to advance with Jack and Rapunzel after this, but he did know he wasn't going to stop arguing until Merida was in the group like he strongly thought she deserved.

"He's right." said the Instructor as he walked up to the Commander and Hiccup. "I've seen her use bow and arrows, and I have to say, I've never seen anything like it. She never missed her target once." he continued. "I know it may not be my place to say this anymore, but if it were my choice, I would let Merida advance. Especially with that custom gear Hiccup worked on."

Hiccup smiled at the Instructor, then turned to the Commander with a more serious look. "I'm not leaving this spot until you let her in. I'll keep arguing all day and night if that's what it comes to."

The Commander looked at both Hiccup and the Instructor. He didn't like feeling teamed up on, especially by one of his own students. Nevertheless, he knew Hiccup was right, and with that argument he knew he hardly had a choise but to accept it. "I get it. But we already have our ten students. I can't take anyone out now." the Commander replied in a more calm but still strong tone.

"U-um, Sir." Hamish walked forward in front of the students. "Merida can take my place. You're better off with her, and I don't feel comfortable advancing just yet. I got in here by luck or something. But the one who really deserves to be here, is Merida."

The commander looked at the students taking a moment with his response.

"You can't say no now. Please, Sir. I promise you won't be disappointed." said Hiccup.

The Commander let out a deep sigh and finally came to a conclusion. "Fine. Merida can advance in rank. Hamish, you will be going back to Training Corps. I expect you not to disappoint me next time."

"Yes, Sir." replied Hamish before he quickly turned around and ran to the training fields in relief to join his brother.

"Merida." shouted the Commander, already knowing she's been listening.

Merida slowly walked in where everyone could see her. "Yes, Sir?"

"From now on you will be continuing in the top ten. I expect you already know which rank you plan on advancing to."

"I do, Sir!" Merida replied with confidence.

"Everyone get back in line. Now."

Merida nodded and walked in line beside Rapunzel as the two girls smiled at each other, trying to hold in their excitement.

"That means you too, kid." the Commander shouted toward Hiccup.

"Ah, yeah, right." Hiccup awkwardly picked up the 3D maneuver gear and ran to his place in line, setting it down in front of him.

"Without anymore distractions, I would like to introduce you all to the head students of the three ranks you will be moving up to." The Commander waited for the three adults to walk up to him from behind. "The first here is Kristoff. He will be the person in charge of anyone who decides to join Stationary Guard. You will follow his orders as your leader. In Military Police, we have Edward. And for Survey Corps, your leader is Elsa. As leaders you will be following every order they give to you." The Commander continued on about how important it is to listen to the leader of the group.

In the group of ten students, a girl named Anna smiled and waved to her older sister, Elsa, who was standing beside the Commander. Elsa gave her a look that could only mean 'knock it off and listen'.

"With everything said and done, I want you to look at your new leader. Tonight, all ten of you and your leaders will be sharing a room in a different cabin from the Trainees. It won't be until tomorrow that you actually start your new positions. This may be your last night of peaceful sleep you will ever get; so expect you to use your time wisely." The Commander then turned his back to the students.

All together the students and leaders shouted "Sir" as the Commander walked away from the group. The students then followed the three leaders to their new room that they will spend the night in.

-  
END.

*Chapter written by Mira, looked over by Lexi.*  
PN: Sorry this is up so late! The Holidays were stressful and I had to study a bunch. I had to cut this chapter off a little sharp so I can make part two a full chapter. The next chapter will be a lot less stressful, and we'll be introduced to some new characters. And don't forget, it's still Rapunzel's Birthday. Someone has to remember, right?

Thank you for the reviews you've been sending! I hope I can start speeding the chapters up now that Holidays and everything is over. All the new characters in this chapter are from either a Disney or Dreamworks 3D animated movie. If you're not sure who someone is go ahead and ask.  
I hope you enjoyed. Time to write the next chapter. I'm excited for it.


	4. Chapter 4: Rapunzel's Birthday Part 2

**Chapter IV: Rapunzel's Birthday Part 2**

"So, what are you going to join?" Seems to be the only question going around lately. It was later in the day and the top ten students all crowded into one room; the dining room.

"Merida, over here." shouted Rapunzel from across the room.

Merida made her way with her tray of food over to the table that Rapunzel, Hiccup, and Jack were all sitting and sat next to Rapunzel, who kept a seat open for her.

"Thanks 'fer savin' me a seat, Punzie."

"Of course." Rapunzel replied. "Hey, Merida. I don't want to pressure you or anything, but I was a little curious on which position you're planning on joining."

"Actually, I was going to ask ya' guys the same thing." Merida paused for a second. "To be honest, I've been training to join Survey Corps."

Rapunzel smiled and was about to talk but before she could say anything Merida continued.

"But after all that talk from the Commander about my lack in speed and all, I'm not really sure anymore. Maybe I'm better off in Military Police or somethin'." Merida said while looking toward the ground.

"Don't listen to him." Hiccup added in. "You wouldn't be in here right now if you didn't have what it takes."

"No. I wouldn't be in here if it weren't for you making me some custom maneuver gear." Merida replied in what seemed to be a harsh tone.

Hiccup looked down a little, not sure how to feel about her attitude. "Sorry. I shouldn't have done that." his voice grew soft.

"What are ye' talkin' about?" said Merida "I'm extremely grateful, Hiccup. I have no clue how to repay ya for all of that."

Hiccup looked up once more, his voice being confident again. "Well, you can stick to your original plan and join the Survey Corps."

"Alright, then. I will. I'll join Survey Corps." she said with confidence. "By the way, what are you three joining?"

"We all agreed on joining Survey Corps since the day we became Trainees." Rapunzel replied.

"It's settled then." said Jack, everyone now looking at him. "All four of us are going to be a team."

Everyone smiled and agreed. After a little more talking and once everyone finished eating they all got up to put their dishes away. Rapunzel was following a little behind and on the way she bumped into Edward.

"Ah, sorry abou-. Oh, Edwar- uh, Bunny. Fancy bumpin' into you here." Rapunzel giggled at her own sarcasm.

"Hey, Rapunzel." Edward reached out and grabbed Rapunzel's tray. "Don't worry about this, I'll take care of it."

"Oh, no, it's fine, really. I'm following the others anyway."

"It's your Birthday. You should be worrying about this type of stuff." Edward held the tray over his head where Rapunzel couldn't reach so she wouldn't bother trying to take it back from him.

"You remember?" Rapunzel questioned, forgetting all about the tray.

"Why wouldn't I? It's not like your Birthday ever changes. It's the same day each year."

"It's just- it's nothing, really." Rapunzel stopped what she was going to say because she didn't want to show how upset she actually was over everyone forgetting her Birthday.

"I'm sorry I couldn't really get you anything. I've been pretty busy."

"I've noticed. I hardly see you around anymore. Who knew Military Police would keep someone so busy. Nothing really happens around here anymore."

"You're going to be really busy soon, too. Are you three still joining Survey Corps?" Edward asked.

"We are. And Merida is joining us now, too. We'll probably see you even less now, won't we?" Rapunzel looked to the left a bit, avoiding eye contact.

"You never know. Maybe we'll see each other more. I guess we'll wait and see. But I promise no matter how busy I may be, I'll always check in on you all here and there. And I will always be here to wish you a Happy Birthday."

Rapunzel smiled, but she was still a bit upset. She liked making promises more than receiving them; you never know how well someone can keep a promise. And this is one she would always want him to keep. "I should catch up to the others. It was really nice talking to you again, Edward."

"You too."

Rapunzel finally ran up to the three, leaving Edward in charge of her tray.

Once Rapunzel caught up with the rest, she noticed they were talking to someone else. Not wanting to cut off their conversation, she quietly walked in and stood beside Jack.

"I'm joining Survey Corps, too!" the girl said to everyone. "It'll be weird, though." she laughed quickly before continuing. "My sister is going to be my leader. I'm going to have to take her seriously now." she paused for a second. "Oh, right. My name's Anna, by the way. And my sister is Elsa, our captain."

"I'm Jack." he replied, then pointing to Rapunzel and the rest, "This is Rapunzel, that's Hiccup, and she's Merida."

"I'm glad I could meet all of you. Anyways, I should go talk to my sister now." she waved before leaving. On her way to Elsa, she lightly bumped into a guy who just walked into the room. "Oh, sorry about that, uhm, uhh, your name?"

"Kristoff. Maybe watch where you're going next time. By the way, you're not planning on joining Stationary Guard, are you?" he said, his voice was a little gruff.

"I'm joining Survey Corps." Anna replied.

"That's a relief."

"Well okay, Mr. Grumpy Pants. I'll get out of your way now." Anna made sure to smile at the guy before she continued on her way to her sister.

Kristoff scratched the back of his head before making his way into the crowded room.

"Hey guys," Rapunzel said, her voice a little softer than usual. "I'm going to go walk around. It's our last night here, after all. I just want to get one last look at everything."

"Well alright. Stay safe, Punzie. We're heading back to the room here shortly. Meet back there when you're done." Jack replied.

"I will." Rapunzel waited a bit to see if anyone had anything to say to her before she finally left the room.

"Is there something on her mind?" Merida asked.

"She'll be fine. Give her some space. We all need it now and then." said Jack.

"Let's go to the room. I want to make sure I get a bottom bunk before they're all taken." Hiccup replied, heading to the door. Merida and Jack followed behind him, all heading to the room where everyone was sleeping tonight.

-

Rapunzel walked into a supply closet and looked around a bit. On a shelf she found some paint. There weren't many color options, but she took what she could. Beside the paint was a brush that she took as well. She wrapped everything in a cloth and left the room, heading down the hall in a different location.

Back in the bedroom Merida, Jack, and Hiccup were telling crazy stories to pass time.

"And then she ate it" Merida said, continuing her story. "Then, crazy things started happenin'. And ye' would neva' guess what happened next."

"Let me guess, she turned into a bear?" Hiccup replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the thought.

"She turned into a bear!" Merida shouted

"Sometimes being right isn't as relieving as it should be." said Hiccup

"Ah, it's a good story and ya' know it."

"Right, that's why it only took you a minute to come up with."

Merida nudged Hiccup on the shoulder gently before the two laughed it all off.

"C'mon, Jack. Usually you're more lively than me over these types of things." said Hiccup.

"I'm getting a little worried. Rapunzel isn't back yet.." Jack said, looking at the door like he has done for the past five minutes.

"She won't come any sooner if ye' keep waitin'." said Merida. "Why don't we go find her?"

Jack got up right away and ran out the door the second after Merida suggested going after Rapunzel.

"Did I say something?" Merida asked.

"I think this is bringing him back to what happened five years ago." Hiccup added "I don't know everything, but I know they were split up right when the titans broke through the Wall."

"Maybe we should let him find her first. I'm sure it'll calm him down a bit." Merida suggested.

"Maybe. We'll go after them in a few minutes, then. So, what happens next in your 'prize winning' story?" said Hiccup.

"Aha, well~"

While Merida and Hiccup were exchanging small stories, Jack was looking in every room he would pass to find Rapunzel.

He looked around in the dining room for a few minutes. There were still a good amount of people chatting and having a good time, but Rapunzel was nowhere to be seen.

Jack continued down a different hall and stopped outside the supply closet. He walked in and turned the light on.

"Not here, either? Where are you, Rapunzel?!" Jack said, getting impatient with himself.

As he reached to turn off the light, he heard a quiet squeak; a sound that he's heard before. He quickly turned around as if he was expecting to see Rapunzel.

"Pascal?" Jack said, looking at a shelf where a little green chameleon was sitting. "I almost didn't see you. Why are you in here? This is risky, you should always be with Rapunzel-" Jack stopped once he realized what he was saying.

Jack held his hand out, letting Pascal crawl onto his palm. "Where's Rapunzel?" he asked despite knowing he wouldn't get a clear answer. Pascal looked up at Jack, a little confused. Though, Jack could swear it looked like Pascal shrugged for a second.

"What am I thinking?" he sighed. "Well, if you're here then that means Rapunzel was here at some point. Maybe she's nearby. Hopefully." Jack turned off the light and walked out of the room with Pascal.

He started walking down a darker hall. The lights were off due to no one ever being down there at this time in the night. Right before he was about to head back and check all the rooms once more, he saw a light on in one of the rooms down the hall. Without hesitation he ran down to the room, barging through the door.

"Rapunzel?!" he shouted the second he opened the door.

He heard something fall from the corner of the room. He shut the door behind him and walked past a few shelves that were stocked with all the students maneuver gear and weapons. "Rapunzel?" He said, slowly moving closer to the end of the room. Finally, he met face to face with the other person.

"Jack? You scared me." said Rapunzel.

Rapunzel was sitting on the ground in the corner of the room with a little lamp on beside her. She had her maneuver gear placed on front of her and little bottles of paint everywhere, one of the bottles were tipped over and spilled across a little patch on the ground.

"/You/ scared /me/, Rapunzel." said Jack as he stood beside her. "You should have been back at the room a long time ago."

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to the time." she said. "I kinda want this day to just end, anyway." she reached beside her and picked up the cloth she used to carry all the paint, now having to use it to clean up the paint that spilled on the ground.

"Sorry, did I do that? By shouting." Jack questioned.

"It's fine. It cleans up easy as long as you get to it right away." Rapunzel replied, trying not to look at Jack.

"Why would you want today to end? You want to be up against titans already?" Jack questioned.

Rapunzel didn't reply. Instead she finished cleaning up the paint and set the now stained cloth aside.

Jack realized she wasn't going to answer so he decided to approach with a different question this time "What are you painting?"

Rapunzel grabbed the paintbrush and dipped it in yellow paint, moving the brush to her maneuver gear.

"It looked a little boring to me." she said as she added finishing touches to a flower shaped sun she painted on the corner of her maneuver gear.

Jack finally calmed down completely and sat down beside Rapunzel.

"It's really good." he said.

"You think so?" Rapunzel replied, finally looking over to Jack.

"It kind of reminds me of when we were younger. You really did like to paint a lot."

Rapunzel finally smiled at Jack. "You remember? I guess now that we're training, it seems like we easily forget some things."

"I wouldn't forget something like this. I always enjoyed looking at your art or whatever you would come up with." Jack said, his voice getting a little softer while looked at Rapunzel. He smiled back once he noticed she was smiling.

After a small awkward silence Jack spoke again. "The sun is a good idea. It's bright and warm. Everyone will know whose gear this is when they see it now."

"Heh, you think so? I'm glad." she continued "Hey, Jack?"

"Yeah?" he questioned, a little puzzled about what she wanted.

"Maybe I can paint something on yours, too? I just.." she paused for a moment. "They could be like friendship marks. We've been friends for so long, so.. I mean. I was thinking a snowflake shaped moon would look nice on your maneuver gear, maybe?" she asked, looking away from being embarrassed, knowing he wouldn't want something so lame on anything he owned.

"I'd like that." he replied.

Rapunzel looked up at him with a big smile. Nothing else mattered to her in that moment. She moved her gear aside and cleaned off her paintbrush. Jack grabbed his maneuver gear from the shelf and placed it down in front of her.

Jack sat on a shelf and watched Rapunzel while she continued painting. Rapunzel moved her hand to her face to push her bangs behind her ear since they kept falling in her face. Once she did this, a bit of light blue paint got on her forehead. Jack, though, didn't care. He continued to smile while he watched Rapunzel work. Her focus on her painting made him feel some sort of happiness inside, but he never understood why.

After a good ten minutes of painting, her hands now full of color stains from the paint, Rapunzel finally said something. "It's late, but you can hardly tell it's dark out." she said quietly, but enough for Jack to hear. "It's kind of sad. The lights in the fields and outside the cabins are surprisingly bright." she paused for a moment. "Too bright. We can't even see the stars." she let out a sigh. "It would be nice to see the stars for my-" Rapunzel stopped talking once again, not wanting to bring up her Birthday; it's too late already. She continued, but started to mumble. "I mean, since it's our last day here. It would be a nice last experience."

Jack jumped off the shelf and landed on his feet. "Hey, I'll be right back, okay?"

Rapunzel looked at him for a bit, feeling upset knowing he was going to leave. "..Okay." she replied.

Jack ran out the room. Rapunzel stared at the door for a good minute before going back to her painting and adding the last touches to the moon she worked on.

"There, perfect." Rapunzel wiped her forehead with her arm then set the paintbrush down. She sat there for a few minutes waiting for Jack. "I guess he can see it tomorrow.." she said to herself then began picking up all the paint bottles and put everything away.

She put the gear back on the shelves and wrapped the bottles in the cloth. While walking over to the lamp to turn it off, the power suddenly went out. A little startled, she set the paint down and started heading toward the door. It was dark, so she had to feel around the room to avoid bumping into anything. When she got closer to the door she heard footsteps in the hall running her way. Rapunzel made sure she wasn't standing next to the door, assuming the person in the hall was going to open it.

Right after Jack opens the door and whispers. "Hey, Rapunzel, are you still in here?"

"I'm right here." she replied, walking up to him. "Jack, what happened? Why did they turn off all the lights?"

"There's no time for that. Follow me." Jack reached in the direction where Rapunzel's voice was coming from and grabbed her wrist gently.

Jack started running out and Rapunzel, without choice, followed behind him.

"Where are we going?" she questioned.

"We're almost there." Jack replied.

They finally reached the back doors of the building and Jack let go of Rapunzel's wrist. "Okay. We're here."

"Why are we at the doors?" she asked.

Jack opened the door and grabbed Rapunzel's hand this time. Walking her outside a good distance from the building.

Rapunzel looked around. It was completely dark outside. She looked over to Jack, confused, but she finally realized what was going on. Rapunzel took one last look at Jack when she noticed he was looking towards the sky. She decided to look up as well.

There were hundreds, thousands of stars shining all around them. It was endless and beautiful. Rapunzel couldn't help but smile. It was everything she wanted to see and more. The moon was the brightest thing out tonight; not a light in the field to ruin it.

"You did this?" she asked.

Jack let out a small chuckle. "I cut off the power. It wasn't easy, though. I had to make sure I wouldn't get caught. Sorry it took a while."

"No. Don't say sorry. Don't you dare." Rapunzel decided to sit down and continue to look up at the sky with a smile. "Thank you, Jack."

Jack sat down next to her. "Anytime, Rapunzel." While Rapunzel was fascinated with night sky, Jack caught himself starting at her for a while. A little flustered, he looked away and gazed at the stars with her.

Rapunzel looked down a bit. "I wish we could stay out here forever. You almost forget what kind of things are out there when everything is peaceful like it is right now."

There was a moment a silence while the two looked at the stars a little more. "Ah.. I'm not wearing my jacket. It's a little cold, but I don't want to go inside just yet."

Without hesitation, Jack took off his jacket and gently let it rest over Rapunzel's shoulders. "Don't worry about me getting cold. I'm fine with this weather."

Rapunzel was thankful it was dark outside. Her face felt warm so she knew she was blushing like an idiot and didn't want Jack to know. He would probably laugh if he did, she thought.

"Also," Jack paused while he reached over and wrapped his arms around her, embracing her in a comforting hug. "Happy Birthday, Rapunzel."

Rapunzel's eyes widened in shock for a small moment. Her blush was only getting brighter. She didn't know what to say or how to reply. She felt like she could tear up at any moment. The whole day she assumed he forgot, but in these last few moments, she's the one who forgot about her own Birthday. She was so into the stars and being with Jack that is wasn't a big deal anymore. Now that she remembers, and knows he remembered this whole time; she really never wanted this night to end.

Before Rapunzel could come up with a reply, Merida and Hiccup came out of nowhere and tackled the two, laughing while they did.

Rapunzel was startled for a second. "Merida? Hiccup? What are you two-"

"Happy Birthday, Punzie!" Merida shouted in joy

"Happy Birthday, 'Punzel. Sorry it's so late." said Hiccup.

Rapunzel and the rest sat up. "Even you, Merida?"

"After ye' left the dining room these two told me it was your Birthday." said Merida.

"The day was so busy we weren't sure when to bring it up. We figured you'd want Merida to know, too, so we waited until we had a moment alone with her to tell her." Hiccup replied.

"Sorry we couldn't make you a fancy cake or get you a lot of presents, but we really wanted to do something big for your Birthday. It wasn't until late that I figured out just what to get you." said Jack. "The stars and your friends."

Rapunzel smiled and tried as hard as she could to hold back the tears. "You guys.." she had to pause because she could tell her voice was about to crack. She was so happy to have her friends here with her. "Thank you all so much."

"Oh, and him, too." Jack looked at his pocket on his jacket that Rapunzel was now wearing.

Pascal crawled out of the pocket and onto Rapunzel's shoulder, letting out his quite little squeaky noise he always makes.

Rapunzel giggled and gently pat Pascal on the head with her finger. "Hey there little guy."

"Bunny would be here, too. But he decided to take the role of keeping anyone from getting the lights back on right away." Said Hiccup as he started to lay on his back to look at the stars.

"Really, thank you." Rapunzel said. Everyone was now laying on their backs and gazing up at the stars. "This is definitely the best day ever." Rapunzel whispered to herself, smiling.

The four continued to watch the stars and laugh together for as long as they could until the lights turned back on and everyone sat up.

"Well, I guess we should all go back in now." said Hiccup, stretching his arms and standing up.

"Hey." said Rapunzel. "Something has been bothering me lately."

"What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"It's my Birthday. Growing up, I always remembered my Birthday being warm. It was always that time in the year where the weather started getting warmer after Winter passed." she paused for a second. "So..Why is it still so cold? There's even frost and snow here and there."

"I've noticed it, too." Jack replied. "Winter has lasted longer each year. But this year, right now, it doesn't even feel like it's warming up." Jack stood up and exhaled a deep breath. "You can still see your breath from how cold it is."

"Yer right." said Merida. "I don't remember having to wear a jacket around this time, and still feeling cold underneath."

"I don't get it.." Rapunzel continued "The worst part is, people are getting really sick from it. Winter was always the hardest on everyone." her voice got quieter. "Why.."

Jack reached his hand out to Rapunzel and helped her up. "I'm sure it will pass soon. It can't be anything too big, right? We'll do whatever we can to help the sick."

Rapunzel looked down a little but nodded in response. "Yeah.."

Everyone got up and started walking toward the building, but Rapunzel was still unsure about what was going on, and wanted to know why Winter was still around. The rest were just as concerned. Hopefully they'll get an answer soon.

-

END.  
*Chapter written by Mira, looked over by Lexi.*

New characters mentioned in this chapter originally from:  
Anna - Frozen. Elsa - Frozen.

I hope you enjoyed. That's it for this whole part 1 & 2 nonsense. Sorry about that, but the chapter would have been too long if I didn't split it up. Whoa, a cliffhanger! The main plot is finally coming into the story. Thank you for reading and/or following! I hope I'm not losing anyones interest. See you next time. If you have any questions or comments go ahead and leave a review. I love reading them. -Mira


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